Page 25 - THE COVID-19 CHRONICLES OF MALAYSIA: Revitalising Recovery
P. 25

The Director-General of Health Malaysia




               Malaysia saw the full wrath of the

               Delta variant during the second
               half of 2021. Despite the
               government's enforcement of
               public health and social measures,

               the number of COVID-19 cases
               continued to surge, peaking at
               24,599 new cases reported on the

               26th of August 2021.


               However, overcoming challenges is                                                                     Source: DG Hisham Facebook    §

               what makes life meaningful. Within
               challenges, therein lies                                                                              Interagency and intersectoral collaboration, especially with the Ministry of
               opportunities.                                                                                        Defence, Ministry of Higher Education, private healthcare sector and NGOs,

                                                                                                                     cushioned the growing number of COVID-19 patients requiring
               The Director-General of Health has                                                                    supplementary oxygen and assisted ventilation. Nationwide, COVID-19
               always formulated its approach                                                                        assessment centres introduced virtual consultation for stable COVID-19

               based on the latest science and                                                                       patients.
               data as we continuously learned
               more of this novel virus. We                                                                          Those at risk were admitted to hospitals for close observation and medical

               adapted our responses accordingly            Overcoming the challenges is                             management. Nearly all public hospitals in the Klang Valley were converted
               and worked closely with key                                                                           to full-fledged or hybrid COVID-19 hospitals with non-COVID-19 patients
               players across all sectors in the            what makes life meaningful.                              outsourced to private medical centres and periphery public hospitals in
               wake of the surge of cases. In              Within challenges, therein lies                           nearby states. The Ministry of Health moved steadfastly to create makeshift

               addition, we made granular data                     the opportunity.                                  hospital beds and ICUs. The MAEPS 2.0, which initially served as a
               and insights on COVID-19 publicly                                                                     quarantine and low-risk treatment centre, was upgraded with equipment

               accessible via the Ministry of                                                                        and human resource to treat category 3 and 4 COVID-19 cases.
                                                         - Tan Sri Dato' Seri Dr. Noor Hisham bin Abdullah
               Health's 'GitHub' repository and             §
               'COVIDNOW in Malaysia' websites
               for transparency and data

               accessibility.
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